Back in 1957, Casio invented the first fully electric compact relay calculator. It took 50 years, but Casio has just announced that they've sold one billion calculators worldwide. And it's a good thing they developed calculators, because one billion would have taken Casio 31 years to count manually.

But this achievement is actually a bit sad for two reasons...

1. The first quantifiable comparison I could make would be McDonald's "billions and billions served", or however that goes. Of course we eat more hamburgers than we do calculators, but it still feels like a loss.

2. Will Casio ever sell another billion? Will dedicated calculators even be around in another 50 years with the cost-effective advancements in microprocessors and all-in-one devices? Should they?